1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of data sharing and distribution systems wherein computers located at distant sites transfer data to each other via a wireless communications network (e.g., a wide area network or a wireless Internet). More particularly, the invention relates to the field of sharing and distribution of files stored in a mobile device to one or more recipients.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile devices like mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, etc. have become increasingly smaller, more powerful, and capable of rich functionality. Many mobile devices now function like computers and are capable of storing files and software applications in their memory. Mobile phones allow transmitting and receiving of data via wireless telecommunication networks, as well as through the Internet.
Mobile phones may connect with a cellular network to exchange images using the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) offered by some cellular network operators. The disadvantage of MMS is that only one image at a time can be sent to one recipient (the process of sending an MMS message has to be repeated for each image and for each recipient). Also, MMS deals with exchange of image files only, the user interface is inconvenient, and MMS does not enable convenient distribution of files and notifications to multiple recipients.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,470 teaches a method for freeing storage of portable devices when the portable device becomes full. This task is accomplished using a network of servers that communicate via wireless channels with the portable devices. That is, if a server detects that a device is nearly full with stored captured images, this server moves stored images to a storage server without interrupting possible owner actions with the device. The owner can download all moved images/data from a storage server to his/her computer after returning to a home/office/hotel. However, this patent does not describe any convenient mechanism to transfer and distribute files to selected recipients, not when the memory is full, but at the discretion of the user.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0010694 teaches a method for uploading photographic data from a wireless device, where the process includes the receiving of a data packet from a mobile phone having digital photograph data and a header configured under a first format with the communication interface, re-configuring the received data packet under a second format with the communication interface, and transmitting the re-configured data packet to a destination device for facilitating communication between a cell phone and other devices via a communication interface. This publication also does not describe any convenient mechanism to transfer and distribute files to selected recipients. Another disadvantage of the method disclosed in this publication is that this method needs a separate communication interface, which makes operation of the method unnecessarily complex.
US Patent Application Publication No 2004/0202291 teaches a method for recording and storing a voice recording into a removable memory unit of a wireless mobile phone, and then electronically transferring the voice recording from the wireless mobile phone to an external target device. This publication also does not describe any convenient mechanism to transfer and distribute files to selected recipients.
US Patent Application Publication No 2005/0076058 teaches a method and apparatus for implementing an interface for media publishing. The method of publishing media data includes accessing a media interface of a media device, capturing media data, storing the captured media data in storage of the media device, modifying the captured media data, and publishing the modified media data to a network server, wherein the capturing, modifying, and publishing are performed using the media interface. However, this publication also does not describe any convenient mechanism to transfer and distribute files to selected recipients.
In view of the related art described above, it will be desirable to have a convenient mechanism to transfer and distribute files to selected recipients. It will also be desirable to have the ability to associate pre-selected recipients with a folder, thereby enabling all the files in the folder stored in a mobile device to be distributed to the pre-selected recipients either automatically, based on a trigger event or a user-defined trigger event, or with a one step menu selection on the mobile device. It will also be desirable to have the ability to configure mobile device folders (associate pre-selected recipients with folders) and other mobile device settings using a computer having a convenient user interface (for example, without limitation, the user interface of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer).